Introduction

Americans have been hearing about the evils of cholesterol for at least 60 years. In the early 1960s, the American Heart Association (AHA) warned people that saturated fat was the culprit behind elevated cholesterol levels. We were told that cholesterol in general, and "bad" LDL cholesterol in particular, would clog our arteries and that would lead to heart attacks. If we would just stop eating eggs, red meat, butter, cheese and other full-fat dairy products we would reduce our risks of cardiovascular disease. 

For decades, cardiologists and nutrition experts encouraged their patients to substitute margarine for butter. Anyone who regularly consumed eggs for breakfast would have been told that this was risky business. That was because the yolks were high in cholesterol.

Americans were advised that a heart healthy breakfast would include pancakes or waffles with margarine and syrup. No cholesterol or saturated fat! Just lots of carbs, which were considered heart healthy. Cereal was recommended as a much better choice than eggs. No matter that many of our favorite cereals were loaded with sugar. If people used skim milk on their cereal, they got a pat on the head and a thumbs up. Yogurt was OK, as long as it was no-fat or low-fat yogurt, which generally meant that there would be a generous dollop of fruit jam at the bottom of the carton. 

Nuts were verboten. They were high in fat and we were repeatedly told that fat was the enemy. Other foods on the no-no list included avocados (also too high in fat) and shrimp (high in cholesterol). We could go on, but by now you get the drift. The bottom line was: fat would make you fat and clog your coronary arteries.